


Unprofessional

by Lilly_White



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: M/M, art school au, life model au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 23:16:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11724621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilly_White/pseuds/Lilly_White
Summary: Cloud gets a job as a life model at a Midgarian art school that Zack attends.





	1. Chapter 1

° ° °

There was a new life model. Everybody had been talking about him. Zack was grinning as he marched through the open doors of the Midgarian Institute of Fine Arts – he’d been speaking to the other third years, so he knew the model’s timetable, as well as _approximately_ what he looked like. It wasn’t that he was trying to stalk the guy, of course not. He wasn’t like that. Only, they had had a batch ultra-dull models these past few months, not to mention mostly women or older saggier men. This guy actually had some proper muscle definition, and seeing his friends’ artwork, he seemed to drop into the most interesting and evocative poses. Zack was excited to start working with an actual professional rather than all these dozers.

It was Wednesday, meaning that the new model would be there for their 4pm lesson. Zack waited outside the classroom doors with the rest of the students, chewing on the end of the sharpened twig he used for sepia inkwork. His friends chatted amongst themselves about the drudgery that had been their art history lesson, but Zack kept an eye on the corridor ahead, straining for any sign of the model. He could at least see the silver crown of his art teacher’s head –the new model must be following close behind. Biting his lip, he tried to banish the flashbacks of that silver hair fanning over his body, and what it felt like when he ran his fingers through it. Sephiroth was a favourite among many students, but it was more for his otherworldly skill with charcoal and oil paints than for his difficult personality. As far as Zack knew, he’d been the only one to get close enough to Sephiroth to gain access to a more… _private_ relationship than a simple teacher-student one. They both tried to be as discreet as possible about it, though it was such a small and incestuous art school that Zack was sure the gossip mill worked overtime behind his back.

Clusters of students broke apart to make way for Sephiroth as he headed for the doors. Zack smiled up at him, trying not to let his gaze linger on that paint-spattered cream shirt he was wearing, the way he’d rolled up the sleeves to free his equally paint-spattered forearms. Sephiroth nodded at him, silver ponytail swaying behind him. Then he marched right past. Zack caught a scent of rose and vanilla as that silver hair drifted past him, and he bit his lip to break the dazed smile he was wearing. 

Then a small figure followed after Sephiroth and Zack’s eyes widened. The guy was _tiny_. Seeing how his friends had painted those long limbs, Zack had imagined someone at least a head taller than he was. He stared a little dumbly as the model strode past him. The guy’s face set as though he were hyperconscious of all the eyes on him. He had a pair of eyes on him, Gaia be damned. Blue as a clear sky, almost hidden behind a thicket of inky lashes. And his fluffy blond hair framed his face a little too closely, like he was intentionally trying to hide behind it. Zack swallowed.

_Shit. He’s way too cute._

The model marched into the classroom behind Sephiroth and Zack soon lost sight of him as the students started piling in after them. Zack gathered up his stuff, heaving his bag on his shoulder and making his way to one of the easels that bristled up around the main stage. While he clipped some sketching paper up and prepared his broken pieces of charcoal, he noticed Sephiroth talking calmly to the model, surely telling him what was expected of the session. Short poses to start off with, then longer and longer, culminating to one forty-minute long pose where the students would be expected to paint the pose as well as they could – that’s how his lessons usually went. Zack watched the model nodding along. The little guy couldn’t seem to meet Sephiroth’s eye – and Zack was _sure_ he saw him blush. He smirked to himself. He definitely wouldn’t be the only one to have a crush on this particular teacher.  

The lesson was set at a time of day when the sunlight streamed in through the windows and hit the stage perfectly. The model stepped up on the stage in the customary nightgown. Sephiroth made sure the mini heater was on, then reached up. The model pulled the nightgown right off, like a virgin might nervously pull his T-shirt over his head during his first time. It was the most unsexual unrobing that Zack had ever seen. Then Sephiroth took the gown from him and turned to his students.

‘We’ll start off with five minute poses to get you warmed up. Cloud, if you please.’

He glanced at the model, and the model nodded. Was that… was that the guy’s named? _Cloud_? Huh. Zack watched as ‘Cloud’ turned his back to him, then shifted his weight onto his right leg. Damn. The light hit Cloud’s glutes just perfectly from this angle. There was a roundness to that butt that Zack couldn’t wait to express on paper. Cloud turned his head to the left, lifted an arm up as though cupping a bunch of grapes above him. Such a classic yet beautiful pose – there were angles, there was obvious weight distribution, there was light hitting the stark musculature of his back and butt, his face remaining in shadows. Zack got to work immediately.

He couldn’t remember feeling this excited about a model before. His eyes were glued to the gentle curve of Cloud’s waist as he let his charcoal slide down the page. Cloud's waist and hips were so slim compared to his bulky shoulders and arms. Zack sketched the dorsal muscles like twin pillars holding Cloud’s body up, then gave a flick of the wrist to outline the glutes. Then another. No. The roundness wasn’t right.

‘What are you doing, lingering like that?’ came a voice from behind him. ‘Get to the legs. It’s been almost a minute and you’ve still only got half a body, here. The full pose, the cohesive attitude of the body is what’s important.’

Zack glanced over his shoulder. Sephiroth always spent his lessons walking around the class giving tips and advice, though most of the time he was a little harsher than needed. He was standing close behind Zack now, arms crossed as he observed his work. Self-conscious as always when Sephiroth was breathing down his neck, Zack turned back to the model and sketched the curves of his thighs.

‘So how do you find this guy?’ he asked quietly – Sephiroth was known for refusing to work with models who didn’t give it their all.

‘He’s very cooperative,’ Sephiroth said. ‘Doesn’t mind going overtime, brings props without even being asked, knows how to move. Most importantly…’ He leaned forward a little. ‘… he does what he’s told.’

Zack grinned. ‘Uh huh. You do like them submissive.’

Sephiroth smirked at him. They were being quiet – the rest of the class were chatting amongst themselves as they sketched, but it still sent a shiver down Zack’s spine for Sephiroth to be looking at him like that in public.

‘Submissive, yes,’ Sephiroth murmured. ‘ _Bratty_ , on the other hand…’

Zack took that as a compliment, his grin almost reaching his ears.

‘Don’t act like you don’t love putting me back in my place,’ he said. Then he bit his lip. He knew just how weak Sephiroth was for that – the first time they’d been intimate, Sephiroth had stared at Zack’s mouth and asked him to do it again, before giving in to the temptation and biting that plump lower lip himself.

True to Zack’s predictions, Sephiroth’s gaze flicked down to Zack’s mouth. Then he turned away immediately, like he didn’t trust himself.

‘Behave,’ he muttered to Zack. ‘And fix those ugly chocobo legs you gave him.’

Pouting, Zack went back to his sketch as Sephiroth moved on to the next student. He’d hardly fixed the legs when Sephiroth said ‘Change pose’, and Cloud moved. Cloud turned around, facing Zack this time. Zack added a fresh sheet of paper to his easel, and when he looked up he got an eyeful of Cloud’s junk.It was… well. It certainly didn’t deserve the word _junk_. The light hit the side of his soft cock and speckled his curly blond pubic hair. Zack couldn’t help staring at the soft gradients of beige, orange and pink. Fuck, it was beautiful – he was seeing all sorts of sunset colours in this guy’s genitals, for Gaia's sake, the light just hit them so goddamned well. There wasn’t a single spot or blemish in sight. Not to mention, his abs were amazingly taut and his thighs… Zack swallowed hard. It was just artistic fascination, that was all. Everyone else was looking - he was allowed to look.

He sketched Cloud’s general pose, flinging charcoal lines across the page. Then he looked up and his gaze crossed Cloud’s. Usually, he’d look away again so as not to make the models uncomfortable. But Cloud looked so surprised, like he’d met Zack before and hadn’t expected to see him there, that Zack was nailed to the spot. Then that same faint pink stole across Cloud’s cheeks as he looked away. He looked angry all over again. Biting his lip, Zack tried to focus on his lines. There was nothing he hated more than making the models uncomfortable by accident. He’d have to at least introduce himself to Cloud and try to talk to the guy so he wouldn’t seem like a leering pervert.

By the end of the lesson, he had scrolls and scrolls of good sketches and shitty sketches and one painting that he left propped on the easel while it dried. The students all queued up to show their own selection of best sketches to Sephiroth, in view of him taking some for grading and some for the end-of-year student exhibition. Cloud had shrugged the robe back on and was sitting on the edge of the stage, surely waiting for the light-headedness to settle after that last forty-minute standing pose. Zack grinned at him as the queue thinned and brought them closer.

‘Hey, man. Not too dizzy?’ he said when they were close enough for casual conversation.

Cloud looked at him warily. Everything about him reminded Zack of a wild animal; his lean musculature, the way he hunched his back when he wasn’t posing, the fact that he looked around himself like he was always assessing the danger. Zack wondered what his damage was. He looked like he needed a friend, or perhaps just a hug.

‘I’m fine,’ Cloud said. ‘I’ve been doing this for a few weeks, now. Getting used to it.’

‘Yeah? You do art yourself, or is this just a job?’

Cloud shook his head, began to explain that he didn’t earn enough at his other job to live comfortably on the plate. Zack arched his eyebrows and empathized with him, telling him stories about his own times working two to three jobs for a cockroach-infested flat down in Sector 4 – and as the conversation went on, the wariness seemed to ebb from Cloud’s face. Students pushed passed Zack to get to Sephiroth, but he didn’t mind. There was just something about Cloud… he wanted to keep looking at him, to keep discovering the different attitudes and expressions that he was capable of wearing.

At one point there were only three students left, all of them crowding around Sephiroth as he gave them criticism all at once. Zack noticed how Sephiroth kept throwing little glances at him, as though intrigued that he was taking such an interest in the model. Gaia, he wasn’t being that obvious, was he? Zack raked a hand through his black spikes of hair, smiling as the conversation naturally whittled down to a blank.

‘Hey, uh – so I’m guessing you’ve already had about twenty people ask you out for a coffee after seeing you naked, and I don’t want to _add_ myself to the list or anything...’ Zack began, stopping when he saw Cloud’s mouth twist into a smirk.

‘Not quite twenty, but it’s getting there,’ Cloud said. ‘You’d be the first guy, though. If you were going to ask me that.’

Shit, shit, shit. ‘Well, I mean – ’

‘I’d be alright with it, in any case.’

Zack blinked. ‘Huh?’

Cloud’s smirk had settled into a more genuine smile. ‘I don’t have many friends here yet,’ he said. ‘So yeah. You – you seem cool. And it’d be nice to hang out with you outside of this room where I take all my clothes off.’

Zack snorted. ‘Yeah. Hey if it makes you feel better, I’ve posed naked plenty of times too for a bit of coin.’

Cloud raised his eyebrows, clearly trying to appear unruffled. ‘That doesn’t exactly make us even. I mean, it’s not like I ever got to see it.’

‘Oh? Right, ok then,’ Zack said, making to tug his T-shirt over his head – Cloud burst out laughing, pulling his T-shirt back down again. They laughed and struggled around for a moment, until Zack realized that they were bickering in full view of Sephiroth, who was probably making all sorts of assumptions. Shit, he didn't even know if Sephiroth would find this kind of flirting hurtful – it wasn’t like their relationship was serious enough to warrant that, was it? He hadn’t been sleeping with Sephiroth for long enough to figure out whether the man had a possessive streak.

In any case, he didn’t want to be a jackass. He patted Cloud on the back, gave him his number and then nodded over at Sephiroth to indicate that he still had to show his work. Cloud headed out of the room to change back into normal clothes.

Sephiroth waited for the last students to have gone before crossing his arms and staring up at Zack from where he was sitting. They were alone in the room. Sheepishly, Zack laid out his papers on the stage in front of Sephiroth, but Sephiroth didn’t even afford them a glance. His gaze remained fixed on Zack’s face.

‘You were flirting with the model,’ he stated.

‘Now wait just a second,’ Zack said, but Sephiroth only smirked.

‘ _Flirting._ With the model,’ he repeated. Then he lifted a hand, slid his fingers into Zack’s beltline. Tugged him forwards. Zack smiled as he straddled Sephiroth’s thighs and sat there, shamelessly crushing the bulge of Sephiroth’s trousers.

‘It’s very unprofessional to flirt with the models, Zack,’ Sephiroth breathed against his mouth.

‘Mmm,’ Zack agreed. As always his mind was wiped blank of any thoughts other than how _warm_ Sephiroth’s thighs were and how his hands were cupping his face and Gaia, someone could come in through that door at any moment.

Sephiroth nipped at Zack’s lips, sending a shiver down his spine. Zack couldn’t deal with this kind of teasing. He sank his fingers into Sephiroth’s hair, kissed him full on the mouth. Then he broke away, and a small silence settled between them as they breathed quietly together.

‘Do you have a problem with me flirting with other people?’ Zack asked. ‘We never really talked about that.’

‘I _would_ have a problem with it,’ Sephiroth said, ‘if it wasn’t someone I was attracted to, as well.’

Zack raised his eyebrows. ‘You hypocrite!’

Sephiroth smirked. ‘At least I have enough tact to keep it to myself.’

‘Uh huh.’ Zack threaded his fingers through Sephiroth’s soft white hair, unable to filter out the images of Cloud and Sephiroth together. Hell, the _three_ of them together. He shifted, not wanting Sephiroth to feel just how enthusiastically he was responding to the idea. 

‘So... are we going to do something about this?’ he asked.

Sephiroth nudged his lips with his own. ‘You tell me.’

 

° ° °


	2. Chapter 2

Waking up in Sephiroth’s apartment was like waking up in an art museum. He had one room which he used as his art studio, where he allowed there to be some degree of mess. But otherwise, his collection of art pieces – mostly from his own students, as he’d made Zack discover upon giving him a tour of the paintings – took up most of the walls, apart from a couple of bare strips behind the furniture. There was a particular painting above Sephiroth’s king-sized bed that Zack would look at after sex, vaguely and yet with the hazy thoroughness of someone who is so deep in sexual after-glow that they can’t physically move any part of their bodies, right down to their eyes. The painting was very dark: a man seemed to be pulling his way out of a marshy blackness, his skin almost opalescent. Only his shoulders had managed to pierce the surface – his hands were gathered at his neck and his head was turned up as though towards a distant light. A tumble of blood-red hair covered his eyes and swept outwards in quick, passionate swipes.

Zack wondered if he was a figment of Sephiroth’s imagination. But for him to hold such a central place in Sephiroth’s own bedroom surely meant that he held some importance. Either it was someone who’d played a big part in Sephiroth’s life, or the painting itself symbolized something he couldn’t let go of. But what was infuriating about Sephiroth was that he would not allow Zack to get close to him any quicker than one tiny baby step at a time. Zack had tried asking him once, after a passionate session that had started in the kitchen and somehow progressed to the bedroom, leaving a chaotic trail of clothes and nail-marks on the walls and scattered papers all over the floor. _So who’s the redhead?_ Head resting against Zack’s abs, Sephiroth had stared mutely up at the painting for a few long seconds. Then he’d sat up, hair dragging along Zack’s stomach before falling straight down his chest. _I don’t want to tell you about that right now,_ he’d said. _Ask me later, perhaps. Shall I make us some tea?_ But ‘later’ hadn’t worked either, nor the time after that. There were other subjects that Sephiroth accepted to broach only once they'd reached a certain milestone of intimacy, so Zack grudgingly accepted that this would just be another one. 

°

Later, during his lesson with Mr Hewley which usually consisted of copying other people’s art in order to learn new skills, he’d decided to use that painting to learn about colour schemes. He’d taken a photo of it with this in mind last time he'd slept at Sephiroth's place, when Sephiroth had gone to make their usual post-coital teapot. It was a breach of trust, perhaps, but Zack was just too obsessively curious to care.

As usual towards the first twenty-minute mark of the lesson, Hewley walked over to him and looked over his shoulder. The man had always had a bit of a soft spot for Zack; he appreciated his art style and offered him more comments than most students, which was immensely flattering. Zack knew that he and Sephiroth were close friends, so he always wondered whether their relationship would change if Hewley ever found out he and Sephiroth were fucking. For now, Hewley behaved as usual, complimenting Zack on his proportions and pointing out a few gradient errors. Then, he looked up at Zack’s colour reference and did something that every student of his class dreaded – he frowned. Zack felt the colour drain from his face. A frown from him usually meant one of two things: either Hewley was profoundly disappointed in you, or he didn’t understand your choice of source materials or symbolism, which meant critical failure even if you were hours and hours into a project.

‘It’s by Mr Crescent,’ Zack explained hastily. ‘You did say we could choose references painted by teachers, right?’

‘I know who the artist is,’ Hewley said. Zack realised this particular frown held some emotion that he hadn’t seen before – something akin to surprise, perhaps even sadness. ‘I just – hadn’t seen that face in a long time.’

‘Do you know the model?’ Zack asked, heart pounding at being potentially close to an answer. But Hewley just straightened up and looked at him coolly, as though shaken out of a stupor.

‘I did, yes,’ Hewley said.

‘So he was a life model here?’

‘For a time,’ Hewley said. Then he cleared his throat just as Zack’s eyes brightened, eager to find out more. ‘Back to work, Zack. And mind how liberally you’re using that carmine.’

°

After classes, Zack’s mind was whirring so much with ideas about what kind of drama the redhead might’ve stirred up that he forgot to feel nervous about his date. He went to the bar Cloud had pointed out, hands in his pockets, absently chewing on a piece of gum that no longer tasted like anything but rubber.

Cloud was waiting for him at the bar. As soon as Zack saw him, all his thought processes ground to a halt. The guy was in this chic leather jacket and tight grey jeans, sipping a pint of fresh golden beer that was the same colour as his hair. He was… Gaia, he looked even more gorgeous with clothes on. Which wasn’t at all a weird thought to have. Zack made a conscious effort to close his mouth as he headed for the blond.

When Cloud turned to look at him, the wariness he’d managed to get rid of last time they'd talked had visibly crept back in. They shook hands, Zack ordered a beer and then offered for them to go and drink at a table rather than at the counter. While they settled down Zack kept up a light banter about how his day had been at the Institute. Cloud, a little mollified by Zack’s obvious efforts to make him comfortable, asked whether Zack had modeled before he enrolled or during. They segued into anecdotes about life modeling – for a relative newbie, Cloud had already racked up quite a few. An hour and two pints later they were all but giggling, elbows on the table, talking like they’d known each other for years.

‘… it _did_ happen to me once, though,’ Zack said at one point. ‘So I can’t really criticize those guys too harshly. You know how it is, every time you enter a new class you’re like, _I hope to Gaia that no one here is particularly hot, please please don’t be hot,_ and then – fucking _Sephiroth_ walks in – ’

Cloud smirked. ‘You’re telling me you popped a boner with _that_ man in the room? Please tell me it was during your first session with him.’

Zack hit his forearm in mock-outrage. ‘You know, you’re way less nice than I expected,’ he said. ‘Of course it wasn’t during my first session. The whole ‘hot stranger’ factor was just about terrifying enough for it to stay down. And you heard how he talks about your body to the students.’ He straightened up, let his eyelids droop, tried to put on the lowest voice he could muster for his Sephiroth impression; ‘No, it’s all wrong. Look at how the model’s fat pools on the stage. Like an absolute _lake_ of fat. Think _lake_. And his hip juts out like a broken chair leg. You made his hip look far too nice. Think _broken chair leg_.’

Cloud was sputtering into his beer. ‘I think he said something about a student making my ribs look like the hull of a sunken ship,’ he said. ‘And he kept telling people off for making me too – what was it? Voluptuous?’

Zack looked at him for a moment, wondering if he were really offended by what Sephiroth had said. He was a little fuzzy with beer and beginnings of arousal, so he raised an eyebrow and echoed, ‘ _voluptuous’_ in a mock-sexy voice. It made Cloud laugh, though he didn’t quite meet Zack’s eye. They seemed to have progressed past the awkwardness stemming from the fact that Cloud had been stark naked when they’d met, but Zack still reminded himself that he should take it easy.

‘Hey, don’t take what he says during class seriously,’ he said. ‘He doesn’t mean it.’

Cloud glanced at him. ‘How would you know?’

Pride welled in Zack’s chest for a moment at having such confidential information to disclose. ‘You’ve got to promise to keep this to yourself,’ he said. ‘And _don’t_ think about it during class if you don’t want to get fired for inappropriate boners. But… I think he likes you.’

Cloud leaned back, raising his eyebrows like he thought Zack was full of it.

‘Sephiroth,’ he dead-panned. ‘The guy who looks like he could get world leaders to wage war over his pretty face.’

Zack nodded along. ‘Yep. That one.’

‘You’re taking the piss.’

‘I promise I’m not.’

Finally, Cloud cracked a smile and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. ‘Look, if it were true it would be insanely flattering but it would also mean lessons would get really awkward. And I really need the money. So thanks but I don’t… I don’t think I want to know if it’s true or not.’

‘Weeeell I mean you won’t be able to find a better informant than me, apart from Sephiroth himself. As we’re intimate and all,’ Zack said vaguely. It was only after the words came out of his mouth that he remembered he was supposed to keep the whole fuck buddy situation _absolutely secret_. But hell, it had been worth saying just for the expression that Cloud was now wearing.

‘How does that – even _work?_ Between student and teacher?’ Cloud said.

‘I mean it’s not anything serious,’ Zack said. ‘But he doesn’t tell me jack shit until I climb a mountain first and earn it. So you better believe that whenever he offers up a fact about himself, he isn’t lying.’

‘Oh really? A guy like that, acting closed-off? I’m so surprised,’ Cloud dead-panned, words dripping with sarcasm. Zack smirked.

‘Hey, he’s _nice_ ,’ he said. ‘He might be a bit of a bastard when he’s got his teacher shirt on, but otherwise – ’

‘Yeah, I’m sure he gets real friendly when the shirt comes off,’ Cloud railed as he sipped his beer, and Zack snorted. It was his turn to look away from Cloud’s face, a little flustered that Cloud would be bringing up images of him in a sexual context already. Perhaps he wasn’t as shy as Zack had thought. Then again his jokes actually sounded a little defensive, like Cloud was riposting to try and make Zack just as uncomfortable as he might be.

‘So what’s the deal exactly?’ Cloud asked. ‘He likes to sleep around and you keep an eye on potential bait?’

Yeah, he was definitely acting defensive.

Zack looked into his rapidly diminishing beer. ‘That’s… well I understand why you’d think that, given how I just put the facts down,’ he said. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to make it sound like that.’ He sighed, reclining against the booth and picking at the label on his beer bottle. ‘If I’m honest I have no idea what Sephiroth wants. He definitely doesn’t ‘sleep around’ though. It’s actually very hard to get close to him at all unless there are some extraordinary circumstances and like, divine intervention zapping him into accepting your advances. I think he just wants intimacy, really. And honestly I don’t think our relationship will ever progress past the casual stuff, so you know… I just said that in case you were interested.’

Cloud was staring at him curiously, apparently satisfied by Zack’s apologetic tone.

‘You don’t sound like you’re particularly happy about the situation,’ he said.

Zack shrugged. ‘I just roll with it, man. If something good comes my way, I take what I’m given.’

Cloud smiled at that. ‘Sounds like a pretty chill philosophy.’

‘Well, it is.’ Zack lifted his beer bottle. ‘You’re not mad at me for coming across as a creep?’

Cloud pretended to hesitate for a moment, then nodded and clinked his own bottle against Zack’s.

‘Nah.’

They drank.

'So, are you going to take up the offer?' Zack said, after licking the foam from his upper lip. 

Cloud glanced at him inquiringly. 

'What offer?'

'The honeypot mission, to go after Sephiroth and give me all the intel about his dark past.'

Cloud was spluttering with laughter again. 'Putting aside his intimacy issues and that mess of _does he want_ _casual sex, does he want meaningful sex, are we in love -_ I'm not mad enough to go after a work colleague who sees me naked every day. Which pretty much sums him up.'

'Hey, I mean, there are ways to be discreet,' Zack said. 'Look at me. You didn't even know that anything went on between us before I told you.'

'Yeah but I'm pretty sure it'll be clear as day now that I  _do_ know,' Cloud said. Then he tilted his bottle at Zack. 'I'm not going after him.'

Zack raised his hands in a show of surrender. 'OK. OK. It's your loss, that's all I'm saying.'

Cloud was laughing again, shaking his head, though Zack swore he could see Cloud's cheeks going slightly red. 

'I'm  _not_ going after him,' he said again. 'And that's final.'

°


End file.
